"In the Army, going after the truth is usually seen as a waste of time."

If you like the title of Martin Limon's debut, you're half-way there. It's not subtle: there's a jade lady, and, yes, it's not long before she's found bound and barbecued.

She was Pak Ok-suk, a red-light "business girl" in down-town Korea. The US Army assigns two youthful detectives to the case, fearing one of their own is implicated. But trouble brews as Bascom and Sueno overturn far bigger stones than either the inscrutable local gangsters or duplicitous US Green Machine would like.

Twenty years in the service (ten in Korea) give Limon the necessary background, but mere knowledge does not a great book make, and, unlike poor Miss Pak, his novel never does really catch fire.

When the inevitable revelations begin, they are neither revealing nor surprising enough. Nor, bizarrely, is it our 'tecs' tenacity that finally brings the villains to justice: the solution is literally (and lazily) dropped right into their hands after a couple of hundred pages of colourful but inconclusive faffing about. If Limon was shooting for something resonant in the last few dozen pages, his compass is way off. Whatever the conclusion might suggest, Chinatown it sadly ain't.

Still, given its location, the proposed film (from the makers of the shockingly bad Patriot Games) should at least look good. Which is just as well, because this is otherwise seriously insubstantial stuff.